The fierce rivalry between northerners and southerners

We are a small island nation with just about 238.23 sq mi of joy, happiness, friendliness, saltiness, pettiness and shadiness to last us another two thousand millennia. This weekend readers my Slouch is based on a problem we have been experiencing in Saint Lucia for decades, I believe if we question our grandparents and maybe even great grandparents (for those of us lucky to know them) we would be surprised at the response they’d give on that topic.

Over the past few years I have heard and witnessed first-hand the fierce rivalry between northerners and southerners. Sports was usually the battle ground and the end result would almost synonymously mean an embarrassing defeat for those who had made the trek from the north to the then John Odlum Stadium. Although a sound humbling was always on the cards for folks from the north and the occasional upset (when north final beats south) would cause pandemonium and joy, it never got to a point where a person’s well-being was threatened or individuals felt like aliens in a foreign land.

The respect for each other and the spirit of competition was alive and it took the forefront at all times.

However, like the saying goes, that was then and this is now. A bitter rivalry that was once tested on the playing field or on the track has gotten way out of control and if we aren’t careful we might witness our already divided island, delve deeper into the abyss of disunion. Simply put readers, the North and South war has gotten way to old and it has got to stop, now!

In a story carried by our parent paper The Voice, the Sargassumsea weed (the brown smelly one) had been cleared off a beach front just a mere 12 hours after it had washed up ashore and swallowed the entire shoreline.

Almost like a boxing bell to signal the start of a match, the story prompted widespread debate and some boldly called out the government while others focused on and blamed the residents in the community for their current Sargassum situation. A few comments showed just how petty we can be when a situation presents itself. The most popular, “as it’s in the north by a hotel” not-surprisingly received as many shares as it did likes and little to no opposition.

We enjoy comparing ourselves to each other and to a certain extent that is fine; but let’s not take it to the point where it would come across as hate for each other. Don’t let the 238.23 sq mi fool you guys, we are still a very small community and we depend on us for survival. So I am pleading, put it to rest, the North and South war has gotten way too old and it has got to stop, now!